Must-see events at Printers Row Lit Fest

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

With more than 200 presenters scheduled to appear at the 2017 Printers Row Lit Fest, planning your schedule will mean making choices. Chicago Tribune staffers weighed in with their picks for must-see events.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the legendary NBA center, retired from basketball and went his own way to become an author, cultural commentator, political observer and multifaceted essayist. Jabbar's latest book is "Coach Wooden and Me," about his 50-year friendship with UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Recently, for the Hollywood Reporter, Jabbar has also written terrific columns on everything from "La La Land" to the cinema's therapeutic effects on loneliness. Sun-Times veteran Richard Roeper will interview him. 1-1:45 p.m. Sunday, Gymnasium, Jones College Prep High School

— Michael Phillips, Tribune film critic

I was a shy and nerdy bookworm in high school when Rita Dove was selected as our nation's poet laureate in 1993. She was accomplished. She was a Pulitzer Prize winner. She was acclaimed.

She was also the first African-American selected by the Library of Congress for the iconic post. There she was: a writer who looked like me.

Her presence was impressive: making me believe, that I, too, could write my way forward. But her lyrical and poignant words were even more stirring. My classmates and I read her poems aloud to celebrate her appointment. I'm excited to hear her words, in her own voice, at the festival.

One thing I like about the Lit Fest is the intriguing, often unexpected, pairing of interviewers and subjects. My favorite this year is Gillian Flynn and Elise Paschen. Flynn, the interviewer in this match, specializes in taut, dark novels with off-kilter protagonists, most famously the blockbuster "Gone Girl." Paschen is a widely published poet who co-founded Poetry in Motion, a program that posts poetry in subways and buses. (She's also the daughter of prima ballerina Maria Tallchief and has been the poet laureate of Three Oaks, Mich.) Wherever their conversation goes, it's bound to be original. 2-2:45 p.m. Sunday, Multipurpose Room, Harold Washington Library Center

— Mary Schmich, Tribune columnist

Can there be any doubt that race remains the unresolved dissonance at the heart of American life? Surely the vitriolic resistance (in some quarters) to Barack Obama's presidency, as well as the electoral backlash afterward, underscore the point. And who better to address the racial divide than Michael Eric Dyson, the rare commentator who draws upon facts and eloquence in equal measure? His words are needed now more than ever. Dyson, author most recently of "Tears We Cannot Stop," will speak with WBEZ's Jennifer White. 12-12:45 p.m. Saturday, North Auditorium, Jones College Prep High School

– Howard Reich, Tribune music critic

Earlier this year, Heather Ann Thompson won the Pulitzer Prize in history for "Blood in the Water," cited for setting "high standards for scholarly judgment and tenacity of inquiry in seeking the truth about the 1971 Attica prison riots." Thompson will take part in what promises to be an incisive discussion on the consequences of mass incarceration. Joining Thompson will be Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, a Cornell University history professor and author of "Getting Tough: Welfare and Imprisonment in 1970s America," along with Daniel Karpowitz and Jessica Neptune, both of the Bard Prison Initiative. 1:45-2:30 p.m. Saturday, Room 4030, Jones College Prep High School

— Jennifer Day, Tribune books editor

Essayist Samantha Irby is my very favorite sort of writer: stunningly direct, wildly hilarious, breathtakingly honest and, best of all, imminently relatable. She's best known for her blog, "B— Gotta Eat," where she offers winter beauty tips ("I am itchy and sneezy and every other gross dwarf tasked with helping snow white get her man"), a holiday survival guide ("buy your own gifts"), and rules for a book club that never meets in person ("that would require a bra and zipped pants and probably an expensive (U)ber and no one is doing that.") She's scheduled to join Scaachi Koul and Jenny Allen in conversation with Tricia Bobeda. I'll be plopped (hopefully) near the front, fan-girling. 10:30-11:15 a.m. Saturday, South Auditorium, Jones College Prep High School

— Heidi Stevens, Tribune columnist

As a Jane Austen superfan, I'm always on the lookout for the rare update that works. Enter Allegra Goodman's "The Cookbook Collector." A loose but knowing riff on "Sense and Sensibility," in which two very different sisters find their way in life and love, the 2010 best-seller was vivid, surprising, and — in keeping with the original — deeply and profoundly charming. That the author will appear with Jane Hamilton and Ann Leary, and speak with Donna Seaman about coming of age, is the icing on the cake. 3-3:45 p.m. Sunday, Room 4034, Jones College Prep High School

— Nara Schoenberg, Tribune reporter

Ice cream is one of my greatest pleasures so, naturally, I'm gung-ho to read "Hello, My Name is Ice Cream: The Art and Science of the Scoop" by Dana Cree, the Publican restaurants' executive pastry chef. I've been lucky to have worked with her on a few projects for the Tribune, and I was impressed by her creativity and skill. I'm looking forward to learning from her here. Noon-12:45 p.m. Sunday, Food & Dining Stage, Second Floor, Jones College Prep High School

— Bill Daley, Tribune reporter

More must-see events

Hemingway: Actor Stacy Keach and biographer Mary Dearborn in conversation with Bill Kurtis. 10-10:45 a.m. Saturday, North Auditorium, Jones College Prep High School

Columnist John Warner offers his picks for great reads of the year — so far — including "The Italian Teacher" by Tom Rachman, "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou, "The Overstory" by Richard Powers, "Sunburn" by Laura Lippman, "Red Clocks" by Leni Zumas, and "Just the Funny Parts" by Nell Scovell.